2010 Tour of Turkey 2HC

[zapata]

Yes, caught in the last km. Visconti attack from peloton! Edit: and it's Greipel once again. bah.

 

[Moondance]

Greipel takes it. Visconti came pretty close with a last KM attack.

 

[luckyboy]

****'s sake. HTC suck.

 

[Moondance]

What a shame...very courageous riding today by Kern and Wilmann!!

Kern was playing major games with Wilmann, forcing him to do all all of the work late....

 

[Faserr]

man I was really into this race Really a shame for the two leaders.
Greipel rode very smart at the end.

 

[TRDean]

Podium????

 

[Libertine Seguros]

****'s sake. HTC suck.

a team like HTC shouldn't be allowed to race at a race like this. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, it's just statistic-padding. I call the Columbia train the Train of Tedium, because it's their mission to take all of the fun out of cycling. Dullest, most offensive team around.

 

[maltiv]

geh, **** HTC. why couldn't they just let them get this? their obsession with wins in these small races is getting ridiculous

 

[luckyboy]

Dullest, most offensive team around.

Yeah. They're my least favourite team, I think.

 

[TRDean]

Kern was playing major games with Wilmann, forcing him to do all all of the work late....

Wilmann showing better and better form...I am getting really sick of HTC...oh well, such is the game.

 

[Faserr]

These guys at Columbia aren't the superstars. There are a lot of young and new riders at the Tour of Turkey Columbia squad so that's also some great team building.
These new riders need to get into this hard chasing and that's what they learn here. Someday they will do this in the Tour. So there's nothing offensive about that racing. Of course they want to win and that's what they are doing.

 

[Jan the Man]

Yeah. They're my least favourite team, I think.

I wouldn't say I disliked them. I do find that it gets a bit repetitive, however they're very good at what they do and have two of the best sprinters in the peloton amongst their squad.

In a sense what they do should be applauded i.e. they treat each race with respect and they send a team who can win stages in every single race.

 

[TRDean]

I wouldn't say I disliked them. I do find that it gets a bit repetitive, however they're very good at what they do and have two of the best sprinters in the peloton amongst their squad.

In a sense what they do should be applauded i.e. they treat each race with respect and they send a team who can win stages in every single race.

This is absolutely true!!

 

[Mellow Velo]

What an amazing finish. Tough on the two, but what about the cheek of Visconti?
Great stuff!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I wouldn't say I disliked them. I do find that it gets a bit repetitive, however they're very good at what they do and have two of the best sprinters in the peloton amongst their squad.

In a sense what they do should be applauded i.e. they treat each race with respect and they send a team who can win stages in every single race.

Oh, they're brilliant at what they do. It's just that what they do is strangle the life out of bike racing by making every stage a predictable bore where they get on the front and boss things all the way to a predictable bunch sprint where nobody can get close to them.

Is it brilliant tactics and racking up an awe-inspiring win tally? Definitely.

Is it like shooting fish in a barrel sending the likes of Greipel to a race like this? Definitely.

Is it predictable and repetitive watching Greipel beat people he could beat without going full bore? Yup.

Is it very interesting to watch when you know what's going to happen before it happens? Nope, not at all.

Screw HTC. Them competing in a race like this is just meaningless stat-padding. It's like keeping Tom Brady throwing it when the Pats are already 34-0 up.

 

[Faserr]

Mh, Libertine Seguros you are not right. I think this years Tour of Turkey is a really exciting race.
Today, they didn't ride predictable. This squad isn't that unbeatable, perhaps Greipel in the sprint but not the whole Tour of Turkey Squad. Nearly no other team would have tried to chase this break. At first they tried to bring Greipel back to the lead bunch with four guys and then they were just fighting really hard and they got the reward.
At the top of the big climb it was really hopeless for Greipel and there was perhaps only a 20 % chance for them to win this stage. They fought like no other team and they got the reward. There was nothing, really nothing predictable in this stage for Columbia. Thats bull****.
They even made this stage more exciting than Paris-Roubaix

 

[maltiv]

These guys at Columbia aren't the superstars. There are a lot of young and new riders at the Tour of Turkey Columbia squad so that's also some great team building.
These new riders need to get into this hard chasing and that's what they learn here. Someday they will do this in the Tour. So there's nothing offensive about that racing. Of course they want to win and that's what they are doing.

Well what they do at almost every single race they enter is to have two extremely strong time-trialists (in this case grabsch and rabon) + greipel and atleast 1 leadout guy (renshaw), which is obviously a guaranteed win here.

HTC doesn't care what they win, they just want loads of loads of wins so they can brag about it at the end of the season.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Mh, Libertine Seguros you are not right. I think this years Tour of Turkey is a really exciting race.
Today, they didn't ride predictable. This squad isn't that unbeatable, perhaps Greipel in the sprint but not the whole Tour of Turkey Squad. Nearly no other team would have tried to chase this break. At first they tried to bring Greipel back to the lead bunch with four guys and then they were just fighting really hard and they got the reward.
At the top of the big climb it was really hopeless for Greipel and there was perhaps only a 20 % chance for them to win this stage. They fought like no other team and they got the reward. There was nothing, really nothing predictable in this stage for Columbia. Thats bull****.
They even made this stage more exciting than Paris-Roubaix

It's been an exciting race because people have challenged HTC's boredom train. Unfortunately HTC's boredom train keeps winning out. It could have been really interesting with ISD trying to manage the gap to Kern with their depleted resources. At the top of the big climb it was hopeless for Greipel but when you have flat terrain and lots of ITT specialists against tired GC candidates doing track stands with each other, of course it's going to come back. And once Columbia get a chase going? That's total predictability. They have the strongest sprinter in this race by a country mile, so as soon as they put the Train of Tedium on the front, either the break's staying (which inevitably doesn't happen, when was the last time you saw a break stay away when Columbia went full bore on the front to pull it back?) or Greipel's winning.

No matter how many people tried to inject something interesting into it, Columbia bossed the péloton for the last 40km, caught the break, and set up Greipel for an easy sprint win. Columbia haven't injected anything of interest into this race. It's other people trying to disrupt Columbia that have made this race interesting. Columbia would be happy if every race was a sprint finish, and I don't like sprint finishes. Why watch for an hour and a half when you could watch for five seconds and see all you need to? I used to have no problem with sprints, but with Columbia around I don't like them because they used to be unpredictable and interesting. Now they're dull and easily predicted. I LOATHE sprint finishes when there was a good chance of the stage NOT being a sprint, because it's a huge letdown.

So far in this race, the winners have been: Greipel, Greipel, Visconti, Visconti, Greipel, Greipel. You're telling me it's not been predictable? People were saying before yesterday's stage, Greipel will win six stages. Greipel will win this stage, Greipel will win that stage. We KNOW what will happen, because it's tedious and predictable. This is like Garmin in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. At least HTC are only bossing the sprints.

 

[djconnel]

a team like HTC shouldn't be allowed to race at a race like this. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, it's just statistic-padding.

The race is 2.HC, ranked higher than Vuelta Castilla y Leon, which is only 2.1. Blame the UCI or rich Turks throwing prize money at the race, not the team. 2.HC is the same ranking given to Criterium International, Three days of De Panne, the Tour of Luxemburg, and the Tour of California.

I think the real issue is people don't like Greipel much, because he always appears so arrogant. I can't blame him for that: he seems to win more often than not.


Mr. Humble wins again

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I like Greipel more than I like Cavendish. I don't have a problem with Greipel, it's the whole team ethos which is "sign great time triallists. Sign people with great potential. Make them nothing but glorified leadout men. Send them to smaller races we have little reason to go to other than to pad our statistics so we can rack up a huge win tally."

Basically, Columbia make races dull, and other teams (and the race organisers) have to work really hard to make races interesting if Columbia are around. This time they've had some success, but the good racing has been no thanks to Columbia, who've tried to ruin all of it. The good racing has primarily been thanks to Cofidis and ISD, with a touch of Skil and De Rosa as well.

 

[Mellow Velo]

The Vuelta Castilla y Leon had Theo Bos as the only real sprinter. He won both the opening stages.
What is the difference?
It's a pity that Chicchi had to scratch, as he might have offered some resistance to Greipel.

An exciting race that is tedious and predictable? Errr.........OK.
The commentators had not a clue to either the tactics or the outcome, today.

 

[Jamsque]

I understand what you're saying, Libertine, but you are acting like HTC just targets small races and obliterates them with strong squads, which I think is unfair. Their biggest aim every year is always winning stages in the grand tours (and Cali, I suppose) and they build their schedule around their goals like any other team. What they don't do, ever, is go to a race just for a training ride. They are not a great team in the cobbled or hilly classics, or in the GC in big stage races, but they are damn good at winning on the flat, and they ride for the win every day they think they have a chance, regardless of how big the race is.

 

[Moondance]

The Vuelta Castilla y Leon had Theo Bos as the only real sprinter. He won both the opening stages.
What is the difference?
It's a pity that Chicchi had to scratch, as he might have offered some resistance to Greipel.

An exciting race that is tedious and predictable? Errr.........OK.
The commentators had not a clue to either the tactics or the outcome, today.

Well, Graeme Brown isn't a great sprinter by any means... But he ain't horrible either. Decent opposition I would call him.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

What with Rabo breaking things up yesterday, it wasn't clear from over 40k out that Bos would win.

HTC only exist to ride boringly. They haven't animated a race in donkey's years. They ride to put a train on the front of the péloton and take it to a sprint. They're really, really good at it, which means that nobody else has a chance. Which makes it really annoying because I want somebody - ANYBODY - to beat them. My heart sinks when I see them on the startlist of races like this one. When they're racing in bigger races and ProTour races there are at least some people who can challenge them, even if they aren't usually successful. But in races like this, their presence has little function other than to rack up wins.

 

[luckyboy]

I'd just rather see breakaways win (especially if there's a Cofidis rider like there was today. Or another French teams rider there). Sprints are nearly always boring. They're always more boring than breakaway riders working out tactics against each other and attacking in the last few kms.